Rude Customers

[wendykh]

I agree with every single word in this post:
http://www.violentacres.com/archives/59/two-phrases-that-destroyed-american-culture?1

I am so tired of obnoxious and rude customers. And I'm not talking with me as the server. I'm talking sitting next to them in restaurants, standing behind them in lines, etc.

Now, granted, I am the one who won't shut off my cell phone at Starbucks. (You are there to serve me coffee. STFU and hand over the frappucino. I do not owe you my undivided attention). But that's also because I worked fast food type jobs as a teen and early 20something and I can't imagine the chutzpah to sit there and clear my throat when i knew perfectly well what the customer ordered and had their payment and change done just fine. This is Starbucks, not the Tiffany counter.

But the kind of rude obnoxious snotty customer always right types in that post (and good lord I noticed an apalling amount of them in Florida) really need to be put in their place.

Comments

[chatgoddess.livejournal.com]

Sorry Wendy, I disagree. If you are going in to order something, then focus on the order. Don't talk on your cell phone while ordering food - give the employee your undivided attention and don't make them wait while you have a conversation with someone else. That's rude.

It also makes your ordering take longer and unless someone is dying (in which case you'd be out the door and on your way), no cell phone call is that important that you need to finish it while ordering food.

[dreamalynn.livejournal.com]

I agree. The person who is "there to serve" is a person and their work obviously has value to you because you're there patronizing their store. You can take 30 seconds out of your phone conversation to complete the communications portion of a transaction at a coffee shop, bakery, grocery, etc. or you can wait. Otherwise not only do you gum up the works, you're treating the employee as a non-person and that's decidedly uncool.

[wendykh.livejournal.com]

Oh if it's gumming the works yes. But if all I need to do is pause and say "frappuccino" then that's fine.

I never had the nerve to think I deserved anything else while I was serving customers. I do hold my call and then order, but I am not going to sit there watching her make my coffee like it's some brand new trick I've never seen before.

[tygre.livejournal.com]

I also agree, sorry. As a former sales clerk, there was little more annoying than trying to get the customer's attention while she was too busy on her phone to pay attention to her order.

"Why didn't I get a gift receipt?"
"Well, ma'am, i asked you twice if you needed one, and you didn't reply, so I assumed you did not want one"

etc. Happened more often than I care to recall, ugh.

[wendykh.livejournal.com]

But that's what gripes me. That person's an asshole, has nothing to do with their phone. Could be their kid, their dog, their nails, whatever. I guess I trust me to know if I can do my exchange with a phone or not and I don't appreciate some 16 yr old there to hand me coffee telling me to get off the phone when she or he has no idea why I might be on that phone.

[marybethorama.livejournal.com]

there is a theory that the customer is NOT always right but I'm too lazy to search it right now.

My summer job is dealing with customers but it's okay. I've got it under control. They obey me ;) LOL